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Minus The Bear – Lost Loves

Over the years Minus The Bear has done a tremendous job releasing their b-sides, and not only releasing them but releasing them as true b-sides. You know, a song that gets left off an album for one reason or another and later appears on the b-side of a 45 single for a song off said album. Majority of them have seen the light of day on one of the handful of 7” records they released over the years. But in fall 2014 the band released a b-sides album on Dangerbird Records entitled Lost Loves.

Lost Loves features 10 songs ranging from the Planet Of Ice era up to the Infinity Overhead era. Six of the 10 songs have never been released on vinyl before, with two of them being completely unreleased up till now. The songs “Walk On Air,” “Electric Rainbow,” Patiently Waiting” and “Cat Calls & Ill Means” have been released before this b-sides album, but were only done so on import versions of albums, retailer exclusive bonus tracks, exclusive bonus discs or on soundtracks. The two previously unreleased songs are “Invented Memory” and “The Lucky Ones.”

For the vinyl version of the album there are four variants in total for this record, two U.S. variants and two for UK pressing. both limited to 1,000 copies. There is a Dangerbird pre-order/tour exclusive on transparent pink/blues swirl and there is an indie record store/regular retail exclusive on smoky black/yellow swirl. One thing of note about the transparent pink/blue swirl is that the base color is pretty much clear, so the record’s true appearance is clear with pink and blue swirl, which is much different from the description given on both the hype sticker and by Dangerbird Records. As just mentioned, both variants for the U.S. pressing have a hype sticker on the front of the jacket (on the shrink-wrap) noting which variant/color the record is.

The UK pressing is much more limited than its U.S. counterpart, in fact there is half as many copies. There are 300 copies pressed on clear with gold swirl and 700 copies on black. The UK pressing was released by Big Scary Monsters, who seem to have a good partnership with Minus The Bear/Dangerbird Records as they have handled the UK releases of both of the band’s album released by Dangerbird in the U.S. I have not seen photos of the UK pressing so I don’t know what the clear with gold variant looks like or if either of the variants come with a hype sticker on the cover noting the color/variant.

With the U.S. pressing is a nice black and white insert with liner notes, the track listing that includes which album recording session each song is from and a note from the band explaining the reason behind this release. A download card is included for high quality 320 kbps MP3’s. The jacket is a standard single pocket jacket.

Overall this is a nice release, but the price should be lower. I don’t say that because I’m yearning for the time where single LP’s cost $10 and double LP’s cost under $20, I say that because if other, smaller labels can pull release a single LP in a gatefold jacket for $15 or less there is absolutely no reason other than greed that any other label out there should be charging $20 or more for single LP releases. Lost Loves’s MSRP is $20, and depending on where you look the price goes up to $22 or $23 before shipping. I bought this during a sale for $15 shipped, which is a decent price.

Here is the track listing with the recording session and where first released next to it since many people out there have not heard these songs or never knew of their existence up until know.